The summary articles in the table below related to the strategic health
authority area are copied from the following pages, indicated in the table by
key numbers.
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Summary articles |
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An elderly woman who moved house to be near her daughter may lose her expensive NHS drugs for Alzheimer's disease because of the reluctance of her new consultant to prescribe them and the health authority to pay for them.
Guardian
Tuesday May 29, 2001 [Northampton] |
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The government's health watchdog called yesterday for a national register
of NHS complaints, after exposing a "culture of complacency" that
had allowed a Leicestershire family doctor to abuse young male patients for
12 years. Peter Green, a Loughborough GP, was jailed for eight years
in July 2000 after being found guilty of nine charges of abusing five male
patients. John
Carvel, Social affairs editor Guardian Friday August 31, 2001
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Where the treatment centres will be. The health secretary, John Reid, today
announced details of the government's controversial programme of privately run
fast-track diagnostic and treatment centres, and a number of new mobile
ophthalmology units. This guide explains where they will be.
Friday September 12, 2003 [South-west peninsula (Mercury Health Ltd),
Lincolnshire (Mercury Health Ltd), Horton hospital, north Oxford (Mercury Health
Ltd), North-east Yorks (Mercury Health Ltd), Southampton (Mercury Health Ltd),
Northumberland (Mercury Health Ltd), East Berkshire (Slough, Bracknell,
Maidenhead and Windsor/Ascot) (Mercury Health Ltd), Didcot, Oxfordshire (Mercury
Health Ltd), Ashford, Surrey (Mercury Health Ltd), Maidstone (Care UK Afrox),
Barlborough Links, Nottinghamshire (Care UK Afrox), Derriford, Plymouth (Care UK
Afrox), Chase Farm, Barnet, London (Anglo Canadian), King George hospital,
Redbridge (Anglo Canadian), Royal National throat nose and ear hospital, Kings
Cross, London (Anglo Canadian), Bradford (Nations Healthcare), Burton (Nations
Healthcare), Daventry (Birkdale Clinic), Trafford, Greater
Manchester (Netcare UK), Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital, Stanmore (New York
Presbyterian), Shepton Mallet, Somerset (New York Presbyterian).
Two mobile units will offer ophthalmology services in the following areas:
Cheshire and Merseyside (Netcare UK), Cumbria and Lancashire (Netcare UK),
Horton, Oxfordshire (Netcare UK), Wycombe, Bucks (Netcare UK), North Tyneside
(Netcare UK), South-west Oxfordshire (Netcare UK), North-west peninsula (Netcare
UK), Dorset/Somerset (Netcare UK), Kent/Medway (Netcare UK), Hants and Isle of
Wight (Netcare UK), Surrey and Sussex (Netcare UK), Thames Valley (Netcare UK)] |
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A FORMER Newton woman plans to take action because she believes it was the
deadly hospital super-bug MRSA that killed her husband. John Cochrane, 38, was
admitted to Glenfield Hospital in Leicester for a heart bypass on July 30.
Rugby Advertiser 09 September 2004 |
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A village doctor killed himself after becoming distressed over an
investigation into the number of patients he was referring to hospital
specialists, an inquest heard today. Dr Stephen Farley, 55, was visited at his
practice in Ibstock, Leicestershire, by officers from his local primary care
trust (PCT), who presented a bar chart comparing his rate of referrals with
other GPs. He was also sent letters from Charnwood and North West
Leicestershire PCT requesting that he retrain. Debbie Andalo and agencies
Thursday March 10, 2005 |
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A hospital trust is considering removing Bibles from patients' bedsides for
fear that they may be spreading the superbug MRSA, it emerged today. The
University Hospitals of Leicester NHS trust is meeting on Friday to discuss the
health risks from copies of Gideon Bibles provided in patient lockers in
Leicester's three main hospitals.
Thursday
June 2, 2005 |
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Hospitals feel pain of funding problems. The FT says the Department of
Health's decision to review the St Bartholemew's and Royal London PFI project
"is a symptom of a deeper malaise affecting large-scale PFI hospital
projects". Patricia Hewitt has hinted that in future there will be more
reliance on "LIFT" (local infrastructure trusts) and fewer big PFI hospitals.
An NHS executive said: "My guess is that Birmingham, and Barts and the London,
will go ahead. But they will be the last of the mega-deals". Other PFI
projects that could be in doubt include the £700m rebuild of University of
Birmingham Hospitals. Minutes from a board meeting of financial regulator
Monitor show that the DoH asked Monitor to approve the scheme's affordability
- a request that was refused on the grounds that the guarantor, not the
regulator, should carry the commercial risk. Treasury officials are known to
be sceptical about four big projects in Liverpool worth £1bn. Schemes in
Bristol, Plymouth, Hertfordshire and Leicester could also be in question.
Summary by Keep our NHS
Public of Financial Times 27 December 2005 (subscription needed to
access FT articles) |
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GPs may stop
giving children jabs in payment row. East Leicester and West Leicester
PCTs say they can no longer afford to pay for MMR, polio, tetanus and TB
vaccines and have told GPs to pay for them themselves. The PCTs have sent GPs
backdated bills for the vaccines from December 1. They have also withdrawn
funding for other services, including ear syringing and some blood tests. East
Leicester PCT is trying to make up a deficit of £1m; and Leicester City West
PCT £4.5m. The chairman of Leicestershire and Rutland LMC, the GPs' body,
said: "Without any notice, the PCTs have deducted the money from the GPs. It
has put the doctors in a very awkward position. Some might decide to opt out,
though we wouldn't advise them to. There are many ridiculous steps being taken
by PCTs to try to cut their costs." Leicester City West's chief executive
said: "These are obviously not very popular measures. Our justification for
them is that we're in a difficult financial position." Summary by Keep our NHS Public
of
Leicester Mercury 4 January
2006 |
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Mental health
ward in Leicester closed. The Herrick Ward, part of the Brandon Unit of
Leicester General Hospital, has been closed for six months with a loss of 30
beds while its future is decided. The closure saves Leicestershire Partnership
NHS Trust £400,000. Consultation on the future of the whole Brandon Unit will
take place until February 3, but the trust has stated that it wants to close
the unit completely and replace it with new wards. Summary by Keep our NHS Public
of
Leicester Mercury 4 January
2006 |
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PFI hospital will
go ahead. The University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust says its £761m
Pathway PFI hospital project will commence despite doubts over the future of
large PFI deals being unviable under payment by results. The deal with private
contractor Triskelion will see Glenfield Hospital double in size, the existing
General Hospital virtually demolished and the Leicester Royal Infirmary site
converted to a new children's hospital.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Leicester Mercury 9 January 2006 |
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Health cuts in
Hewitt's back yard. Leicester West PCT is cutting support for people
trying to quit smoking and the availability of the morning-after pill in
Patricia Hewitt's constituency. The trust has a predicted £4.5m deficit.
Hewitt said that while she wanted trusts to balance their books she did not
intend this to be at the expense of patients' services. She said: "I asked for
them to make savings on administration costs to remain within their increased
budgets. I'm disappointed Leicester West primary care trust has found itself
in this situation." Elsewhere in Leicestershire Charnwood and North West
Leicestershire PCT is considering closing a mental health ward as it tries to
save £3m. Leicester East PCT (£1m predicted deficit) and Leicester West last
week told GPs they could no longer afford to pay for childhood immunisations.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Leicester Mercury 9 January 2006 |
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Leicester
Hospital trust lends PCTs money. The University Hospitals of Leicester NHS
Trust (UHL) has a £3m surplus for the year and is lending it to
Leicestershire's cash-strapped PCTs. The money will be repaid on April 1, the
new financial year. The move, in the county where Patricia Hewitt holds her
seat, is exactly the kind of deficit-avoidance scheme that the health
secretary is trying to discourage.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of BBC Online
13 January 2006 |
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Cash crisis:
ops may be delayed. Leicestershire's PCTs are considering delaying
non-urgent operations until the new financial year. The PCTs have started
discussions on the matter with the University Hospitals of Leicester NHS
Trust, who they pay to carry out operations at the Royal Infirmary, General
and Glenfield hospitals.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Leicester Mercury
16 January 2006 |
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PFI doubts lead
Hewitt to turn down hospital's trust application. An application by the
University Hospitals of Leicester trust has been put on hold while its £761m
PFI scheme is reviewed. There are rumours in the PFI market that there is a 6
month moratorium on new PFI hospitals, something the Department of Health
denies.
Summary by Keep our NHS Public
of Financial Times 19 January 2006 |
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East Midlands
trusts battle to lower £50m debt. Attempts to claw back the overspend by
closing wards in Grantham, Stamford and Skegness have provoked protest
marches. Trusts in Leicestershire have admitted they are considering delaying
routine operations. High Peak and Dales PCT in Derbyshire faces a debt of
£2.9m and has cut the hours of the minor injuries unit at Buxton Hospital,
closed wards at the New Holme and Cavendish hospitals and put a freeze on
staff recruitment. In Nottinghamshire, Nottingham City Hospital Trust is
facing a shortfall of £6.3m and has frozen recruitment and closed some wards.
Summary by Keep our NHS Public
of BBC
Online 30 January 2006 |
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Review for
Leicester hospital project. The government has asked the University
Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust to undergo a "revalidation exercise" of its
£761m PFI Pathway hospital building scheme. The project, undertaken by
consortium Triskelion Healthcare and the second biggest PFI scheme in the UK,
would see Glenfield Hospital double in size, Leicester General virtually rebuilt
and a new children's hospital open at Leicester Royal Infirmary. The decision is
part of the Department of Health's moratorium on PFI projects as it seeks to cut
the total cost of England's hospital building project by up to 40%.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Leicester Mercury 3 February 2006 |
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Bailiffs
collect NHS trust debts. Leicester City Council resorted to sending in
bailiffs when the University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust failed to pay
£420,000 in business rates. The trust owed rates on the Leicester General
Hospital, Glenfield Hospital, Leicester Royal Infirmary and a pub it bought to
expand the LRI site. Summary by Keep our NHS Public
of BBC
Online 7 February 2006 |
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Debt collectors were sent into the NHS trust serving the constituency of
Patricia Hewitt, the health secretary, because it had not paid a £420,000
bill, it emerged yesterday. The bailiffs arrived at University Hospitals of
Leicester NHS Trust after it failed to respond to a summons from the city
council to pay business rates on Leicester General hospital and Glenfield
hospital for last September and November. The trust also overlooked payment
for the Pride of Leicester pub, which was required to help expand the Royal
Infirmary. John Carvel, social affairs editor
Wednesday February 8, 2006 The Guardian |
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Cash crisis
won't delay operations. The strategic health authority that covers
Patricia Hewitt's constituency has told its PCTs that it would rather they
stay in debt than delay operations. PCTs were considering putting back surgery
such as hip replacements and cataract treatments until April. Four
Leicestershire PCTs are in deficit: Leicester City West and South
Leicestershire (£2.5m each), Hinckley and Bosworth (£3m) and Charnwood and
North West Leicestershire (£1.8m). Patricia Hewitt supported the decision,
saying: "We want NHS organisations that are in deficit to get back into
balance as quickly as possible. I think it's right the SHA has taken the
decision to give PCTs a bit longer if they think that's what's needed to
spread out the finances without damaging care to patients." Summary by Keep our NHS Public
of Leicester Mercury 9
February 2006 |
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MP discusses
hospital cash crisis. MP Sally Keeble is to raise the plight of
Northampton's hospital with Patricia Hewitt. A maternity ward, a 24-hour
surgery unit and 50 beds have been closed at Northampton General Hospital as
part of drastic action to save money. The hospital has also been given just
eight weeks to pay back a £2m loan. Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of
BBC
Online 15 February 2006 |
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Hospitals shut
to mentally ill. Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust is closing day
hospitals for the mentally-ill across Leicestershire in a bid to save money.
The trust has a predicted deficit of £4.6m. Five units are being shut down on
different days of the week until April when the new financial year begins. For
two months, the Langton Day Unit, at Leicester General Hospital, and the
Glenvale Day Unit, at Glenfield Hospital, will not open on Wednesdays and
Thursdays. Beechwood Day Unit, at the General, and Forest Grange Day Unit, at
Glenfield, will be closed on Fridays. The Hynca Lodge Day Unit, in Hinckley,
will not open on Mondays. Christine Palmer, spokeswoman for the trust, said:
"The decision was made because of the difficult financial situation facing the
trust." Summary by Keep our NHS Public
of Leicester Mercury 16 February 200 |
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LIFT medical
centre opens in Leicester. The £2.4 million Merridale medical centre in
Braunstone, Leicester, is the first of a £50m project that will comprise eight
more facilities in the city. Also planned are £2.4 million primary care
practices in Humberstone, De Montfort University, Belgrave, Bede Island and
Groby Road, and an £11.2 million Charnwood health and social care centre.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Leicester Mercury 20 February 2006 |
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NHS trusts
still in red at end of financial year. Leicestershire's mental health
trust is struggling to break even by the end of the year, facing a deficit of
nearly half a million pounds, despite having already made cuts to services.
Hospitals for the mentally ill across the county have been shut down on
different days of the week, and the Herrick Ward, part of the Brandon Unit of
Leicester General Hospital, was also closed in December for six months to make
a saving of £400,000.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Leicester Mercury 24 February 2006 |
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A threat to
immunisation. Leicester's east and west PCTs are refusing to foot the bill
for jabs against polio, tetanus and TB, in a bid to save money. Leicestershire
and Rutland LMC has said GPs could stop providing immunisations for children.
While it is unusual in other parts of the country for PCTs to pay for the
immunisations, GPs say the situation has been sprung upon them too soon and
they are not able to budget for the change.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Leicester Mercury 3 March 2006 |
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Threat to
future of health unit. The Rutland Unit in Narborough, a 21-bed centre for
people with mental health illnesses such as schizophrenia, is to be closed.
Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust has launched a consultation, but the
options do not include the centre remaining open. The patient and public
involvement forum has accused the trust of blatant cost cutting.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Leicester Mercury 7 March 2006 |
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Two big hospital
PFIs at risk. The University of North Staffordshire NHS Trust has admitted
it will not be able to afford it's £350m PFI hospital without scaling back the
project. The scheme, which also includes the construction of a community
hospital, would tie the trust in to paying the private consortium Equion between
£52m and £53m a year over 30 years, a total of around £1.5bn. The government is
also reviewing the PFI project at the University Hospitals of Leicester NHS
Trust.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of
Independent 12 March 2006 |
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Cancer care
charity hit by health cash shortfall. Leicester Charity Link, a charity
that provides palliative and cancer care, is set to lose 40% of its funding
as Eastern Leicester and Leicester City West PCTs plan to withdraw their
contribution due to their deficit troubles. Leicester Charity Link says the
move will destroy its service.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Leicester Mercury 16 March 2006 |
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Hospital faces
£8m cash shortfall. Managers at Northampton General Hospital have said
that there may be further job cuts and longer waiting lists due to a funding
shortfall. Wards have already been closed.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of
BBC
Online 3 April 2006 |
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Morale among
healthcare staff is at an all time low. Staff morale at Leicester's two
PCTs is amongst the lowest in the country, according to a Healthcare
Commission report. Staff face uncertainty over the future of jobs and
services.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Leicester Mercury 3 April 2006 |
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MP steps into
rebuild delay row. Leicester East MP Keith Vaz has demanded a meeting
with Patricia Hewitt about delays to the University Hospitals of
Leicester PFI rebuilding programme in her constituency, which is
adjacent to his. Vaz said: "The bill [for consultant and architect advice]
stands at around £60m without a brick being put in place." The DoH said in
January it wanted to re-examine the plans. This week it said it hoped to
make a decision within the next three months.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Health Service Journal 6 April 2006 |
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Hospital
staff consider strike. Cleaning and catering staff and porters at
Leicester Royal Infirmary will vote in a ballot this week on whether
they would be prepared to strike over a delay in their pay rise. Unison says
cleaners, porters and catering workers at the hospital who earne £5.15 an
hour should have been receiving £5.88 since October.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Leicester Mercury 20 April 2006 |
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Three leading NHS hospitals risk being downgraded for failing to give
information on the
death rates of their heart surgery patients, the Guardian
has learned. The trusts are the only ones in the UK not to have provided key
data for the Healthcare Commission, which has been gathering information on
mortality rates linked to individual surgeons. The information will be
published today on a groundbreaking website designed to enable heart
patients and their families the chance to make informed choices about where
to have surgery. Last night one of Britain's top heart surgeons warned that
the commission might penalise the three trusts - St Mary's in Paddington,
west London,
Glenfields in
Leicester, and Morriston in Swansea - by
downgrading them in their annual performance ratings. "I think it is utterly
unacceptable in a modern health service that units no longer have the
discipline or facility to collect good outcome data," said Sir Bruce Keogh,
president of the Society of Cardiothoracic Surgeons. After a Guardian
investigation last year, the commission asked all hospitals performing heart
surgery to provide data on operations such as bypass grafts and aortic valve
replacements. The aim was to help patients assess a surgeon's track record
before having an operation. In a historic move the commission will publish
data on death rates at almost all the 33 hospitals performing this complex
work in England and Wales. It will disclose risk-adjusted mortality rates
for individual surgeons at 17 cardiac units, and the aggregated results for
13 units. John Carvel and Sarah Boseley
Wednesday April 26, 2006 The Guardian |
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I did think
things were going to get better, I don't feel like that now.
Leicester Royal Infirmary nurse Kate Ahrens explains why Patricia Hewitt
was booed at the RCN conference: "It involves low morale, poor wages,
questionable priorities and an obsession with the marketplace and profit
rather than patient care… Too much of our tax-payers' NHS money is going
straight into the hands of private companies - when it should be going into
making sick people better. It is an expensive sham - and we are all footing
the bill. It wasn't that long ago that we had in-house hospital cleaners and
in-house caterers; people who were part and parcel of the NHS, part of a
hospital's fabric. Not now. We've got rid of cleaners and given those jobs
to whichever company can do the job for the lowest amount of money. Not do
it best: Cheapest."
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Leicester Mercury 10 May 2006 |
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Pledge is made to
patients as £200m cuts announced. A £200million cut in the proposed PFI
redevelopment of
Leicester's three hospitals will not adversely affect patients according
to hospital bosses. The government demanded savings of £170million, out of
an original £800million scheme, which will come from less new building and
more refurbishment. The revised plan comes as a result of the government's
review of PFIs, which raised questions over the risk involved in the
project. The original scheme involved paying back contractors £92m a year
for the next 30 years, which would have exceeded the annual limit of 15% of
turnover that the DoH has recently laid down. Plans to demolish and rebuild
Leicester General will not now go ahead. The Royal Infirmary and Glenfield
will become the only two acute hospitals with specialised services on both
sites including a children's hospital at the Royal Infirmary and a women's
hospital at Glenfield.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Leicester Mercury 11 May 2006 |
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March to save
mental health unit. Protestors have marched against the planned closure
of a mental health centre in
Leicester. Staff and supporters of the 21-bed Rutland Unit in Narborough
protested outside a consultation meeting about the site's future.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of BBC
Online 15 May 2006 |
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DoH orders £200m cuts to scheme. The Department of Health has trimmed
back another major private finance initiative scheme, instructing University
Hospitals of
Leicester trust to cut just under £200m from its £761m plans to revamp
and reconfigure services at Leicester's General, Royal Infirmary and
Glenfield hospitals. University Hospitals of Leicester trust has been
working on PFI plans for five years, and had its proposals approved by the
DoH in March 2005. They were put on hold in January, amid national concern
about PFIs.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Health Service Journal 18 May 2006 |
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Health cash
problem "is worse than anticipated". Figures from Leicestershire MP
Patricia Hewitt's Department of Health detailing
Leicestershire PCTs' overspends are under exaggerated according to two
of the trusts themselves. South Leicestershire PCT was reported to have an
overspend of £8.5m but trust bosses have already admitted a £10.2m deficit;
Leicestershire City West PCT had a reported £5.13m but this debt has now
gone up to £6m.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Leicester Mercury 8 June 2006 |
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ISTC chaos
ignored. The Government is ignoring local concerns over the national ISTC
programme as evidence emerges of more schemes being scrapped or put on hold. At
least eight of 24 schemes in the £2.5bn wave two ISTC procurement have now been
dropped and another put on hold after commissioners said they were not needed.
But the DoH is not only insisting that
Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridge SHA spends £38m on a elective surgical ISTC,
it has also rejected its proposals for case-mix of patients treated there. A
recent report by Cambridge City and South Cambridgeshire PCTs said the DoH had
"modelled that we need this capacity" without factoring new NHS capacity into
the model. It said "there will be high risk to local providers because the aim
is for the [ISTC] to fill up first". The PCTs are also under pressure to buy
more scans under the national diagnostics procurement. Most of the commissioned
scans would substitute for work done in the NHS rather than supplement it, the
report says. Essex SHA
has been ordered to spend £45m on independent sector schemes, despite the
collapse of two ISTC projects in 2005. A paper presented to Colchester PCT's
board in January said the SHA had "identified a number of concerns" with this
but the scheme was going ahead anyway. A surgical scheme for
Leicestershire, Northamptonshire and Rutland SHA has been halted. The SHA
said that a PFI project to upgrade
three hospitals and an ISTC could lead to over-capacity. The SHA is negotiating
to leave the national private diagnostics procurement. The DoH has allowed the
scrapping of a surgical ISTC in
York, which already has a surgical treatment centre, at Clifton Park.
Birmingham City Hospital's ISTC had been dropped and it has been reported
elsewhere that a further six schemes have been abandoned. These are:
County Durham & Tees Valley,
South
Yorkshire (both cardiology and general surgery),
South
West Peninsula, and
West
Yorkshire (both plastics and multi-specialty centres). Dr Paul Miller,
chairman of the BMA's seniors' committee, said: "There's clear evidence that
wave one schemes are surplus to requirements - spare capacity is being hawked
around like soft fruit at the end of market day. Rather than imposing wave two
schemes where they are not wanted the DoH should stop now. It should not sign
another contract before it has reviewed the whole policy."
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of
Hospital Doctor 8 June 2006 |
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NHS cash
crisis hits care.
Leicester hospitals are feeling the effects of the crisis hitting the
NHS as University Hospital's of Leicester NHS trust attempts to save £22m
this year. Compounding the problem is the reduction in the funding that
covers much treatment in the area as the county's PCTs claw back over £50m.
Doctors in the trust, which covers Leicester General Hospital, Leicester
General Infirmary and Glenfield General Hospital, asked for £25m to maintain
services and pay for developments but were told the trust could only afford
£10m. This will mean extra neonatal nurses and improvements to cancer
services will be put on hold, and a request from children's services at the
three hospitals for under £350,000 has had to be turned down.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Leicester Mercury 13 June 2006 |
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"Bosses
should explain debts". Alan Duncan, conservative MP for Rutland and
Melton has demanded that the bosses of the four PCTs in Leicester,
Leicestershire and Rutland explain how they have run up a £62m
debt, far further into the red than the £50m
reported earlier this month. The trust's bosses have not ruled out ward
closures and have warned of "tough decisions" to be made.
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Leicester Mercury 16 June 2006 |
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Union fears
major job losses. Unison representatives in
Leicestershire have warned that the £62m overspend
by the county's PCTs could see as many as 1,000 jobs axed, and have called
for the government to plug the hole. The PCTs have admitted that "tough
decisions" will have to be made but have accused Unison of inflating the
fears before any plans have been decided upon. Unison has blamed not the
PCTs but the government for the deficit, singling out the "throwing away of
money on PFI schemes."
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Leicester Mercury 19 June 2006 |
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Protesters start
NGH cuts petition. Protesters campaigning against job cuts at
Northampton General Hospital have launched a petition opposing the
cost-cutting measures. Members of Northampton's Trade Union Council staged a
protest on Saturday asking shoppers to support their campaign. More than 100
jobs are expected to be axed and 47 beds closed over the next year due to a
funding crisis at the hospital. Protesters fear this could lead to longer
waiting lists, a reduction in the number of services available at the
hospital, and a decline in the quality of medical care. The protest involved
members of the Trade Union Council, the National Union of Teachers and
Pensioners Voice. Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of Northampton
Chronicle & Echo 27 June 2006 |
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Protest at
city health cutbacks. Around 300 health workers and patients marched
from
Leicester city centre to the constituency office of Health Secretary and
Leicester West MP Patricia Hewitt to protest against the area's health cuts.
Leicester's three hospitals are facing millions in deficits with Union
leaders expressing fears that it will affect services. Plans to
close a 21-bed specialist
mental health unit in Narborough have already been announced. Unison
steward Tom Smith said: We're angry because services are being closed and
Patricia Hewitt is replacing them with false promises. Hands off our
services!" Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of BBC
Online 10 July 2006 |
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Ward to close
despite opposition. A ward caring for people suffering from dementia is
to close at a
Leicestershire hospital despite protests from carers. Around 6,000
people had signed a petition to keep the Bradgate ward at Loughborough
hospital open. Health managers have now confirmed its closure and said they
would be looking at providing respite care through the independent sector.
Carers said the news was like "losing the light at the end of the tunnel".
Summary by
Keep our NHS Public
of BBC
Online 18 July 2006 |
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